Earthquake
by Dairi
Summary: A non-man made, completely natural but very strong earthquake strikes Star City while Felicity is on her way to work early one morning.
1. Chapter 1

Arrow - Natural disaster #1 - Earthquake

Felicity had never been a real, 'early morning' type of person. That's why coffee was invented though, right? To help people like her function throughout the day, especially on the long dreary days that seemed to drag on and on when she had to get up early like this. However, it did help when one's partner - who had to be breaking some laws by looking that handsome first thing in the morning, I mean come on, really? It was just unnatural - made a large pot of coffee for you to wake up to. When he presented you with the perfect cup as soon as you'd been able to drag your sorry bones out of bed. Felicity was of the opinion that everything was made better with coffee.

The blonde CEO smiled over the rim of her coffee cup, one hand on the wheel as she remembered how Oliver had sent her off this morning with a long kiss and a coffee to go. He knew for a fact that she hated these early morning meetings just as much as he used to. She did have the promise of spending the afternoon and evening together, provided she got all the needed work done and could get away early enough. Sure, they had some criminals to track down, but nothing that could not wait 'till this evening. Or later.

So lost in these pleasant musings was she, that Felicity completely failed to notice the unnatural stillness all around her. Sure, it was so early in the morning that the sun hadn't even fully risen yet, but there was a certain stillness in the air, a sense of foreboding covering the trees that only resided on this side of the bridge she was steadily approaching, the eerie feeling to the unmoving waters underneath that bridge. Now, this bridge was the only one she crossed on her way to work, but it was a long one, and it covered a vast stretch of deep water.

Truthfully, she had no notion at all of anything being amiss, until suddenly, as she was about a quarter of the way across said bridge, the pavement in front of her started to tremble. Intially she attributed what her eyes were telling her to a silly hallucination brought on by not enough sleep. Still, she took her foot off the gas and let the car coast for a moment. The trembling was not going away and in fact, it was getting worse. When the bridge started to sway, she came to a sound conclusion.

This was no hallucination.

It appeared to be an earthquake, this time on the 'better' side of the city. Not man-made, she hoped, but there was no time to dwell on it. All she knew for certain was that she had to get off this, and now. Her gaze flew to the rear view mirror, but there was an 18 wheeler just now rumbling onto the bridge. She couldn't back up, which would've been the shortest distance, and didn't believe this car could do a tight enough U-turn. If she'd been in her Mini, it wouldn't have been as much a problem, but she'd since changed up vechiles and did not know if this thing could do a 180 in the space provided and with everything shaking so bad she knew she'd just get stuck anyway. Her blue eyes flashed forwards once more and she mentally calculated how long it would take for her to kick it to the other side of the bridge, but this was all very hard to do through her rising panic. The bridge, her car - everything was shaking and swaying now, likes trees in a windstorm.

Ahead, she could hardly make her eyes focus through her windshield on the people now jumping out of their cars and racing to make it to safety, off the bridge. It had now become pretty much impossible to go forwards anymore, the swaying of the bridge was too much...she suddenly wondered what the building code for this bridge had been, how strong an earthquake it was supposed to be able to withstand, for it was quaking itself an awful lot.

She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the door, but she still had such a long way to go in order for her to reach safe ground...and then she promptly withdrew her hand to her chest and screamed, leaping back in her seat as the cables holding up the bridge began to snap and one decided to lash out and noisily attack the hood of her car. Staring ahead wide-eyed with her mouth still hanging open, Felicity had a good view as the pavement started to crumble. With a horrible sinking feeling, she realized there was no getting out of this one.

Closing her eyes tight, her thoughts turned to Oliver. How they were finally -finally- in a good place, and now... She inhaled with a shuddering breath, not able to carry that thought on any longer and turned instead to thinking of her mother, how she would cope, of Diggle and Lyla and that she'd never get to see Sara grow up...of Thea, and all the friends and family she gained over the past few years.

And then, as she felt the car tipping, she braced herself the best she was able to, just in case, on the slight off chance, that she might actually manage to survive this. There was the feeling of weightlessness, and then nothing.

When the walls had begun to shake, Oliver did not at first understand what was happening. He thought it may have been a bomb of some kind, but there had been no explosion. As the rumbling continued, and indeed grew worse, he realized it had to be an actual earthquake, and felt an initial sense of relief. When things started to fall off the shelves and walls, and a bookcase next to him came crashing to the ground, that sense of relief began to fade. With plaster beginning to rain down upon him, Oliver quickly grabbed his phone and dove under the most sturdy desk that they owned.

His first thought was of Felicity, hoping she had made it to work safely, that building was certainly up to code...or, better yet, had stopped somewhere and was outside, away from the tall buildings and falling debris. This last scenario was entirely likely - his woman was smart, after all - but he still worried.

The shaking went on for a good 90 seconds, but as soon as things started to quiet down, he was speed dialing his girl. As he waited for Felicity to answer, his thoughts drifted to Thea, and he really hoped his little sister had ridden this one out ok. Then there was John and Lyla, he wondered how they had fared too. He would call them, all of them, after he talked to Felicity...once she picked up...

It just kept ringing.

Oliver began to climb out from under the desk and just stood in the center of the room, not paying any attention to the destruction around him. His sole focus was on the cell phone in his hand, Felicity's picture on the screen, as it went to voicemail for the 3rd time. A feeling of dread began to creep up his spine, but he decided to wait, thinking maybe she'd been trying to call him at the same time and the signals were getting crossed. Even as he tried to rationalize it, an icy fear began to grip his heart and constrict his lungs. She had to be ok, she Had to.

He stood there, staring at the phone that had gone dark since he'd hung up, saying quietly to himself,

"Come on, Felicity...come on."

And when the phone suddenly came alive in his hand, he stabbed the 'accept' and brought it to his ear so fast he hadn't even registered the picture that had gone with the call.

"Yes?" Oliver greeted, rather abruptly. The answering sigh was decidedly male.

"Oliver, thank God. I was getting worried when I kept getting a busy signal." It was Diggle. Oliver's eyes slammed shut, and that icy fear had extended to not only his heart and lungs, but his soul, his whole existence, felt frozen in time. He swallowed hard and was pretty sure he wasn't breathing, but he forced these next three words past the vice that his throat had become, needing to know even if he was more worried about something else at present.

"You and Lyla?" Oliver asked, eyes still closed, and Diggle understood baby Sara was included in that question as well. He was also beginning to realize something was very wrong on Oliver's end.

"We're fine, nothing broken that can't be replaced. You and Felicity?" Diggle asked, a pit beginning to form in his stomach as Lyla walked up next to him with her tablet in hand, which had somehow made it through unscathed.

"She...she had that early meeting today." Oliver had answered, after a moment, his breathing ragged and voice strangely quiet. "I don't...she was on her way when it happened. She's not answering her phone, Digg." The last sentence was almost a whisper, and Diggle let out a breath, not liking how lost his former boss sounded.

"Early reports are coming in," Lyla broke into their conversation, Oliver just barely being able to hear her on his side. "It seems to have been centered towards the nicer side of town...and, oh no. The bridge on 39th collapsed." Lyla's pale face rose to meet her husband's gaze, and they both had a sinking feeling. Diggle heard Oliver let out a strangled sound, so he knew the other man had heard. John was quick to try and reassure Oliver, but his heart wasn't fully in it because he was just as scared for their girl.

"We don't know for sure whether or not she was on it, Oliver." Digg pointed out, but Oliver was only half listening. He was calculating in his mind in the time she left and when it hit, where she would've likely been...and it was not coming up good.

"...I've got to go. I've got to find out." Oliver spoke, turning towards the door as he was about to hang up.

"Ok, I'll head that way too. But Oliver, Lyla can trace her phone GPS and then we'll know for sure. Wait to do anything drastic til after you hear from one of us again, ok?"

"Sure." Oliver spoke the word that meant nothing to him at the moment and hung up the phone, because he knew. Still, as he picked his way through the debris on the floor and towards the front door, Oliver tried Felicity's phone again. It continued to ring out, but then, as he was almost out the door and it was going to go to voicemail for the third time again, he heard a click. Followed by the most beautiful, most precious sound in the world, to him.

"Oliver?"

A relief rushed through him unlike he'd ever known, so feircely, so intense that he had to sag against the door frame in relief, eyes closing as he touched his forehead to the wooden frame. Upon hearing her voice, shaky though it was, he was suddenly able to breathe again.

"Felicity." He breathed out the name like a prayer, and he heard her make a sound in between a laugh and a sniffle. Back to business. "Where are you?" He demanded, voice a little bit stronger now that he knew his world was still breathing.

"Uh.." at her stuttered, halting and somewhat confused response, his eyes flew open once more. "I...was on the bridge." He could tell she was moving around, could hear the sudden and sharp intake of breath as she must've moved something that hurt.

The confirmation that she had indeed been on the bridge stole his breath away again. Had she gone down with it? Had she been able to grab her bag and run? The next words filled his being with that icy dread once more.

"Oliver I...I'm in the water. My car, the water's coming in, it's up to my ankles." Her voice sounded desperate but strangely detached. This was not a good sign; surviving a fall like that, she likely had a concussion, not to mention all the internal bleeding that could be going on and she'd never know it...

Forcing those thoughts aside, he focused on her and helping his girl to get free of the car. He'd have to be calm for the both of them, even though he felt as though his whole world was slipping away...which, it really was in danger of doing just that.

"Oliver, I can't open the door. I'm stuck! I'm stuck, I'm gonna die down here..."

"Felicity. Felicity! Listen to me. You are not going to die down there. Do you hear me? You're not allowed to. I'm on my way, but Felicity...you need to move, you have to get out of there." Oliver began to speak as he went back in to find his spare Green Arrow suit.

"How?" She whispered, and sounded so broken his heart was breaking along with it. He had to pause before he was able to continue making his way through the debris.

"Remember that screwdriver Diggle and I always made you carry in the glove box? Well now is the time to use it. Find it and attack your side window with everything you've got...right in the middle, but make sure to face away, when the glass starts to break the water will come rushing in." Oliver told her, straining for any sound of her following through. As he heard her mutter to herself that she'd have to put the phone down to open the glove box, a sudden, inexplicable fear pierced through his being straight to his very core, and he kind of, sort of, freaked just a little bit.

"NO! Do not hang up, please, you need to stay on the line and talk to me, Felicity!" He almost growled out the last bit, but then tried to reign it in; he wasn't mad at her and didn't want her even thinking so. But if yelling at her would help in keeping her alive, then yeah he'd do it. There was a small silence in which he was sure she'd done just what he'd asked her not to, when he heard her sigh.

"Fine," she spoke as if it were the biggest inconvenience in the world, "I'll just.." there was an intake of breath and some pained moans that had him on alert again. He'd not even asked the extent of her injuries yet, but it wouldn't matter anyway because she was getting out of there on her own, there's no way he or Digg could get out there fast enough. She was on her own, but he knew she could do it.

"Ok, I got it." Felicity announced, and then hesitated.

"Felicity?" Oliver asked loudly, as he'd put it on speaker phone while he'd changed, and still had it in his hand as he made his way out the door.

"Oliver, if I don't make it out..."

She didn't even finish, because then Oliver was barking out at her,

"You are going to make it, Felicity! Listen to me, you're gonna make it, because you're a fighter, and you've got to get back to us." A pause. "I'm on my way to you, Felicity, but you've got to get out..."

"Oliver. I will." She whispered, and then paused again, and this time he did too. "I just wanted to say...I love you. So much." Her voice went high on the end there, and Oliver closed his eyes and hissed through his teeth, but still managed a reply.

"I love you too. Now get out of there so I can keep on showing you how much." Oliver about growled out the last sentence, throwing himself forward again. He had found the bike and was only too grateful that it had roared to life under his hands, he'd switched it quickly to his blue tooth and now he was racing through the debris littered streets to make it to his girl.

"Ok." He could hear the smile in her voice, and his heart and stomach did a strange combination of soaring and clenching at the same time. It was rather uncomfortable. "Ok, I'm gonna do it now...I'll have to hang up, but...see you on the other side." She whispered.

"You'd better." Oliver told her, listening to her breathing until she clicked off. He gunned it, revving up the motorcycle to go even faster, swerving through the debris like a crazy person.

-  
Sent from Fast notepad 


	2. Chapter 2

In case I forgot to mention, I own nothing.  
Now, this was orginally supposed to just be a 2 part fic, but then this really got away from me so hey guess what?

There will be a part 3. It may take a little longer, but it is coming.

You'll need to know that, by the ending on this one, which I apologize for. This fic will have a happy ending though, promise!

Thanks so much for reading, and doubke thank yous to everyone who has reviewed/commented! Please let me know whay you think!

* * *

An incessant ringing noise is what brought Felicity back to awareness. There was a pause, and then it started up again. She blinked slowly, looking down as she realized she was in her car, and that ringing noise was her phone, which she should probably get...

And then it all came back to her. The sudden earth shaking, the bridge, the cables snapping...her car falling.

So. Apparently she hadn't died, that was a plus.

Felicity shifted and reached out to find her phone, which was in her purse, which was amazingly still in the passenger side seat.

"OW! Oh, oh bad idea, bad idea..." Felicity grumbled, withdrawing her hand with a wince and bracing her whole right arm against her chest. She feared it may be broken, given how much the dang thing hurt to even move. It must've taken most of the impact when she'd landed in the water...or, something. She scooted to the right a little in her seat and let out a groan. Her whole right side really, really hurt. The ringing paused again, and promptly resumed.

Steeling herself with a deep breath, Felicity reached over with her left and grabbed the bag, bringing it into her lap and fishing out the phone. Seeing Oliver's face light up the screen, she couldn't stop the smile that came to her lips. Seeing him, even just a picture, filled her with a sudden peace. She hit 'accept' and, voice shakier than she would've liked, she answered with,

"Oliver?" She heard a slight noise, and then the voice that could give her hope even in the darkest of situations...and the one she was in, was pretty dark.

"Felicity." He breathed out her name like a prayer, and she felt this relief unwind inside her; now that Oliver was with her, if even just by phone, everything was gonna be ok. Somehow. "Where are you?" He demanded, and well, she wasn't quite sure how to answer that.

"Uh.." she started, then halted. Where was she? Right, she'd been on the bridge...and she was only now realizing the car was starting to fill with water. "I...was on the bridge." She heard herself say, but when she tried to lift her heels out of the water a sudden sharp pain came to life up her right side. She sucked in a sharp breath, not wanting to overly worry the man on the other end of the line. The fact that she was in this car, trapped at the near bottom of a huge river, with said river water seeping in, was enough to worry on.

"Oliver I...I'm in the water. My car, the water's coming in, it's up to my ankles." The fact that she was truly in this situation had not quite settled within her yet. It was like she was watching this experience happen to someone else, because how could this possibly be her life, seen through her own eyes? Really now.

Except it was. It was just now getting through to her foggy brain that this was indeed happening and she was in quite a bit of danger. She reached out with her left hand, which was still holding the phone, and quickly tried to force the door open. The weight of the water this far down must've been too much, because it wouldn't budge. She began to panic, as she knew she was well and truly trapped, and the car was still slowly sinking lower. She couldn't get out, she was gonna drown down here, in her own car. The thing that had such a great crash test report, and was supposed to keep her safe, was going to become her coffin. The phone went back to her ear as she started to freak out.

"Oliver, I can't open the door. I'm stuck! I'm stuck, I'm gonna die down here..."

"Felicity. Felicity! Listen to me. You are not going to die down there. Do you hear me? You're not allowed to. I'm on my way, but Felicity...you need to move, you have to get out of there." His steady voice helped to refocus her, and she sat still, focusing on her breathing. But the question still remained...

"How?" She whispered, and hated that her voice broke on the one word.

"Remember that screwdriver Diggle and I always made you carry in the glove box? Well now is the time to use it. Find it and attack your side window with everything you've got...right in the middle, but make sure to face away, when the glass starts to break the water will come rushing in." Oliver told her, and she wondered how on earth he was able to keep so rational and calm when all she wanted to do was have a panic attack.

But, ok, right. Glove box. Now, how was she supposed to do this with one hand?

"Can only use one hand right now," she found herself muttering, already starting to lower the phone. There was also no way she wanted Oliver to hear how painful it was gonna be for her to reach all the way over there, using only her left hand, to open that stupid thing. "Gonna have to put the phone down, just for a minute.."

Before she'd actually finished with that sentence, there was a small explosion of Oliver's growly voice, not unlike his Arrow voice, on the other end of the line that made her pause.

"NO! Do not hang up, please, you need to stay on the line and talk to me, Felicity!"

Ok. So maybe he wasn't quite as calm and rational as she'd originally thought. He was concerned, she knew, and with good reason. The fact that he was concerned for her, made her heart warm a little more, and ever more detirmined to do what she could to get out of here and back to him. Still, he didn't have to go all growly, but she understood. With a sigh, she nodded, then remembered he couldn't see and gave a verbal response.

"Fine," she spoke as if it were the biggest inconvenience in the world, which in a way it was because she was more concerned about his hearing this than the actual things that she'd have to do. "I'll just.." She shifted the phone to wedge it between her right shoulder and cheek, and pressed it there even though this angle was really making her head throb and oh it was so hard to even think right now... Felicity reached out through the pain, unable to hold back the groans as the movement shot agonizing bolts and burns through her whole body. After actually wrenching the thing open, which was a small miracle in itself considering that the front of her car had taken some damage and it was wedged in an odd way, all she could do at the moment was blindly feel her way through the box until her fingers wrapped around the nessecary piece of equipment. She paused, breathing carefully through her nose, eyes closed, and then started to withdraw her hand. She sat back in her seat at long last, and just took a moment to breathe, letting the pain wash over her until it finally began to fade.

"Ok, I got it." She finally announced, and then hesitated.

"Felicity?" She could hear Oliver ask and his voice sounded funny and a little far away. Her hazy mind began to wonder if that's what dying felt like. Speaking of which...

"Oliver, if I don't make it out..."

She didn't even finish, because then Oliver was barking out at her,

"You are going to make it, Felicity! Listen to me, you're gonna make it, because you're a fighter, and you've got to get back to us." 'To me,' remained unsaid, but she heard it all the same. There was a pause before he continued, "I'm on my way to you, Felicity, but you've got to get out..."

"Oliver. I will." She whispered a promise that she wasn't entirely sure was even within her power to keep, and then paused again. She had to say it, she just had to. Voice full of tears, she squeezed the following out. "I just wanted to say...I love you. So much." Her voice went high on the end there, and she scrunched up her nose as she tried to calm her breathing, holding tightly to the small tool in her hand.

"I love you too. Now get out of there so I can keep on showing you how much." She heard Oliver reply, hearing the sound of his motorcycle coming to life in the background, sounding strangely distant. She held back a sob as she realized that he really was on his way, she just wondered what to. If she really did perish down here, she knew he would not take it well. It wasn't about a pride she had or anything, it was a simple fact of the knowledge that she'd gained about him over the years. She had to survive this, for him, and for everyone else as well.

Also, it wouldn't hurt, the fact that Oliver had spoken about how he desired to keep on showing her just how much he loved her. Their future - she wanted that, so bad. The thought of simply being held in his arms again filled her with peace. If she died within the next few minutes...at least she'd die happy.

"Ok." She heard herself agreeing, to what she wasn't quite sure, but she knew she needed to do something. She lay the screwdriver in her lap and switched the phone back to her left hand to rest her neck for a moment. "Ok, I'm gonna do it now...I'll have to hang up, but...see you on the other side." She whispered, hoping, really hoping she hadn't just lied.

"You'd better." Oliver told her, his growly voice coming out again. She sat there and simply listened to the noise of the bike and his soft breathing for a moment, before she closed her eyes, and hung up on her lifeline.

Taking in a few deep, shuddering breaths, Felicity curled in on herself just a little bit, pressing her phone to the bridge of her nose, where her glasses were somehow still sitting, yet very askew. She knew they'd be gone in the next few minutes, though, and honestly couldn't bring herself to care.

She was scared out of her mind at the moment, but she had to try. She had to live, for Oliver if for no one else. Resolving to do the best she possibly could, she put the phone back in her purse and zipped it up, planning on taking it with her because really? If some psycho mad man came down here looking and had the proper techie at his disposal, he just may be able to get some things off her phone or tablet that she did not want anyone else seeing. Arrow things. And yes, they were about to get severely water logged, but if someone made the effort of coming down here to get them, then they probably had one good techie to look into it. It was a risk she wasn't willing to take, broken arm or not.

Gripping the screwdriver firmly in her left hand, she closed her eyes and looked away, swinging with all her might and grimacing painfully when the blade came into contact with the glass of her side window, and... ...nothing happened.

Opening one eye, Felicity turned to look and could see it had cracked but evidently not enough. Huffing, she looked away again and swung again, right in the same spot, and this time. It worked. Felicity shrieked as water came pouring in, and it quickly broke the glass the rest of the way. She dropped the screwdriver and held tightly to her purse. Through the water that was pouring onto her lap and threatening to blind her - she gasped, because it was unpleasantly cool, and it always had to be cold, didn't it? - she held up a hand and looked and saw the hole made was big enough for her, and, brushing back some pointy glass shards from the window with her purse, Felicity took in one last, large gulp of air and tried to lift from her seat.

But she couldn't. Only then did she remember she was still seatbelted in. A flash of desperate panic hit her hard and she reached across with her left, frantically trying to get it to release her.

She was going to die down here, Oliver was going to find her body still seatbelted into the dang car! Because, she had no doubt he would find her eventually, living or not.

There was only about an inch of air left toward the roof of the car when she finally felt the belt release her. Glorious. She immediately floated to the top and greedily sucked in that last breath, before she closed her lips tight and focused on squeezing through that window. Now the water wasn't rushing in so much it was slightly easier, and using her purse as a grip so that she didn't have to get her hands cut by the glass, Felicity pushed off and through the window. She'd used both hands though, and almost opened her mouth in pain at the agony that was her right side once again.

Before she knew it she was out of the car. Not even bothering to look back, because she honestly couldn't see much in these dark murky waters, Felicity began trying to swim with one arm, her purse hooked about her hurt one.

The movies made it look so easy...and seriously? Swimming in high heels and carrying a purse?

So. Not. Easy.

She could feel her high heels slipping off anyway and she let it happen. With a sadness she allowed herself only half a moment to morn the loss, as they had been one of her favorite pairs, before she focused again on trying to rise through the dark water. Her car had been further down than she had realized. Suddenly, she banged into something, her left hand hitting hard metal. Thinking it was possibly another vechile, Felicity followed it along the side, finally reaching the cab. It was the 18 wheeler. Her lungs were beginning to burn quite badly, but if there was a hope of saving the driver, helping another living being somehow, she would take it.

Coming up to the window, she could barely see inside, but it was enough. Not only was his face covered with red, but a window had broken, and the water made his short hair wave slightly in the current. There was no hope for this man anymore. With a heavy heart, Felicity left his side and continued her journey upward. She kicked through the pain, used her left arm to guide her the best she could, and just as her lungs were burning too much and she just wanted to open her lips to let something in, her head broke the surface.

Greedily, she gulped in the precious air in big, long gasps. She tried to keep herself afloat with her left hand, while her whole right side screamed at her so feircely again. She took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the sunlight, but she quickly came to realize something. Her glasses had indeed disappeared somewhere along the way, and she could not see the shore. She did not know which way to turn. If she chose the wrong way, she'd be going up the river instead of towards its banks. There was no way she could last that long.

Was she in the middle of the river, or closer to one bank than the other? What if she was so close to the right side and chose left and ending up drowning when she'd been so close?

Frozen with indesicion, Felicity bit her lip and wondered what she would do now, she couldn't well tread water forever, when she heard Oliver's voice echoing in her head again.

"You'd better."

He expected her to get out, and she had, but now she just had to make it to the shore. Knowing he was on his way, she picked a direction and started to kick.

It wasn't even a full minute before she was tiring; her head kept slipping under and her body hurt so much and there was no rescue in sight. She kept trying to force herself onwards, but it was getting harder and harder. Her strength was leaving her, and there was nothing she could do. Her eyes stung with tears, as she realized this was it. She'd made it out, but not to safety.

She never heard the splash behind her. If she had she may have tried to hold on for another second, knowing it had to be him, but as it was...

An apology was on her lips as she closed her eyes and stopped fighting the pull of the water. She let herself sink.

She was just. So. Tired. . .

She never heard the frantic call of her name, the muffled curses as she'd already slipped beneath the surface of the water. Never felt the arms encircling her waist, never heard the growl in her ear nor the thundering heart of the man that held her.


	3. Chapter 3

Ok so, this is a much longer chapter but it took me a little while to finish and I didn't really wanna break it in 2 again, hope y'all dont mind. This ends it, by the way.

Oh, warning you now. This is a heck of a ride, tissues may be needed.

Please let me know what y'all thought!

* * *

Oliver continued to race down the streets of his city, not really paying attention to much other than how to successfully navigate around the obstacles in front of him. His eye twitched when there was a sudden ringing in his ear; he'd forgotten the blue tooth was still on.

"What?" Oliver barked out as soon as he connected the call.

"The GPS has her in the river." It was Diggle, ever to the point. It was one of the many things he truly appreciated about John.

"I know." Oliver said in a low voice, "She picked up."

"You talked to her?" Diggle asked, his voice surprised.

"Yes. She's in her car...in the water." Oliver answered shortly, keeping his tone as even and detached as possible. Because if he dwelt on these details for too long, then he would be a complete wreck and no good to anyone. He could freak out later, once she was safe. He heard Digg utter a curse or two and then,

"Already on my way, but I'm on foot. It'll take me some time to get there for back up and any medical needs. I'm contacting the others, too."

"Thank you. And hurry." Oliver growled and then cut the line, not wanting to think beyond just getting to her for the moment. He was concerned about Thea, and Laurel and her dad too, but knew Digg would let him know if anything else was wrong. A sudden obstruction completely covered the road ahead and caused Oliver to slam on the brakes and slide his bike to a stop before he crashed into said obstruction.

The bridge was so tantalizingly close now, he had it in sight. He'd have to ditch the bike and run from here, but that was no problem for him. The problem here wasn't even really the obstruction itself...no, it was what was under it that gave him pause.

"Help! Help me, please..." A tiny voice full of tears could be heard.

The ground had opened up around this tree, which had created a huge crater and caused the tree to fall and come crashing down directly across the roadway...and evidently, perhaps to avoid the tree, a vechile had gone into the crater, crashing into the rootstock of the tree. It was a small SUV flipped on its side, and there was a small child crawling up out of the back seat. Crying out for help.

Oliver grit his teeth, hearing the child's cry yet his gaze wandered over to the bridge, where his heart lay. He really couldn't afford to delay any longer in getting to her side, knowing even a second could mean the difference between life and death.

But...it could here, too. And if she ever learned of him ignoring a child's cry for help, like, admittedly, his intial thought was to do...she'd never forgive him. For that matter, he'd never forgive himself.

Turning to catch the child's eye, Oliver knew he couldn't ignore this cry for help, and so, with his heart screaming at him, he forced his body away from the bridge and towards the car. Jumping from the bike and not caring how it landed, Oliver reached out and grabbed the little boy under his arms and hefted him up and over, safely setting him on solid ground as the child, no older than six or seven, sobbed to himself as he tugged on Oliver's arm and pointed to the front of the vechile.

"My daddy's still in there... I, I couldn't get him out and he wouldn't move." The child stressed the last word, wide, tearful eyes trained on the SUV as he sniffled and wiped the back of his hand over his face. Turning away from the child without a word, inwardly Oliver was cursing this day in every language he knew as he approached the car again, this time climbing down and over, onto it. He looked inside before carefully lowering himself, and of course, of course the father had to be against the door that was all the way against the pavement. Oliver had lowered himself into the back as the front passenger door seemed to be jammed, and had just positioned himself to cut the father free of the seatbelt when the earth started to shake again...an aftershock.

Oliver froze and looked up, fear seizing him as he considered what this could mean for not only himself, but Felicity - what if her car had shifted right as she'd tried to get out and she'd gotten stuck...or crushed...Oliver snapped his eyes shut and shook his head. The aftershock hadn't lasted all too long, but it did shake the car and cause some new bits of debris to decorate his suit. Quickly as he could, Oliver cut the belt and started lifting the father out of the car. He'd just managed to get to the door, supporting the man's weight as Oliver hauled him up while anchoring himself between the seat and the inside of the door. The man was going to need medical attention if that head wound was anything to go by, and fast. Pausing with the man half out, Oliver suddenly heard a shout.

"Green Arrow!" He looked up and saw Laurel, in her Canary gear, heading towards him at a run. She stopped just short of the vechile and somehow climbed up the side of it; and now right in front of him, she said, "I've got this. Go."

He spared a second to blink at her, watching as she pulled the unconscious body backwards and then another citizen was coming up to help her lay him safely on the concrete. By this time though Oliver was long gone. He never thought he'd be more grateful to have his friends in his life than he was at this moment, wanting to thank Diggle in alerting the others of the situation but not wanting to spare the time or focus in order to do so. Feet pounding the pavement, the bridge was now looming large before him, when...another aftershock hit, this one a bit more fierce than the last.

Ground shifting unexpectly underneath him, Oliver's feet faltered and he had no choice in the matter when his body suddenly hit the ground, quite hard. Teeth grinding now, jaw jumping to prevent his inward cursing of this seemingly never-ending day, Oliver jumped right back to his feet and kept on running. The people standing around the entrance to the bridge eyed him strangely, a few even called out to let him know it was out and one even tried to reach out to stop him. Oliver breezed past all this with no hesitation and soon those gawkers were left far behind. Once he was actually over the water on what was left of the bridge, Oliver did finally come to a stop and trained his eagle eyes on first one bank, and then the other. There was no petite blonde woman to catch his eye, so then he began to scan the waters. Nothing.

"No...no, no, no, no." Oliver gripped what was left of the railing and leaned over further, tears stinging his eyes. Had she not made it out of the car? Was that 'I love you,' going to be the last he'd ever get to tell her, get to hear from those precious lips? He'd stopped breathing without even realizing it and his fingers were starting to lose feeling, so intense was his focus on the surface of the water that he'd tuned out everything else. And then...

A flash of a blonde head bobbed up from almost the direct middle of the river, and Oliver almost cried in relief. He did let out a pained, disbelieving yet relieved chuckle as he looked on and realized...was that a purse she was holding? They were gonna need to have a serious discussion after this about proper life-or-death protocols, what and what not to carry with you when you have to escape for your life.

He'd just slipped off his quiver along with tucking his comm into a water proof pocket in his suit, when all his mirth disappeared. He had seen her hesitate upon breaking surface and wasn't sure why, but now that she'd starting moving...he growled.

She was swimming all right, towards the bridge.

"WRONG WAY, Fel-ah," he cut himself off and leapt over the railing, diving into the murky waters below.

Normally, one would not be able to pay Oliver any sum at all to jump from a bridge, into the cold river water. Oliver Queen and large bodies of water? Yeah, didn't mix so well. What scared him even more than the water itself, however, was the thought of Felicity drowning. He'd face his fears 1,000 times over and thensome if it was to save Felicity's life.

So, once again, there had never been any choice to make.

He hit the water with a large splash and, jumping from such a height, he had sunk down further than he would've liked. It took him far too long to make it back to the surface. Which was just in time to see those blonde locks slip under the water just ahead of him.

"Felicity! Hang on!" Oliver yelled even though he knew she couldn't have heard him, let out a string of curses as he surged forwards and dove under. He had no trouble in finding her and, wrapping both arms securely about his all too valuable cargo, he kicked and brought them quickly to the surface. He knew her purse had slipped from her arm when she'd gone slack, but he didn't care at all about that just this moment. All material things can be replaced, people can't. Felicity can't. He turned her in his arms so he could see her face, and realized with a start that she must've inhaled some water because, well, he couldn't discern her breathing and her pulse was weak.

"Hold on, just hold on.." he shook her a little, hoping to dislodge the water as he propelled them towards the shore but there was no effect.

And then...there was another violent tremor interrupted by a quiet loud and eerie groaning noise. Oliver held his breath and slowly looked up, cursing the fact that they had managed to find themselves almost directly under the bridge. And there was a massive steel structure that had once been part of the bridge that was now hurtling towards them.

Naturally.

Oliver grit his teeth and cursed the world once again. There was no time to get out of the way. He mentally apologized to Felicity and then forcibly dunked her under the water, following quickly himself. He held tightly to her middle and forced them under further and further, as far as he could in the short time he had.

When the steel hit the water, it slowed considerably but not enough. It smacked into them, hitting Oliver's back with enough force to knock most of the air from his lungs. He'd nearly let go of Felicity, but there was no way that was actually happening unless he was dead. Shifting his shoulders, Oliver froze as a bolt of stark fear assaulted him as he quickly came to realize something. That steel structure? It had probably been part of the road up til now, but point being, it had these clawlike things everywhere. And one had caught and sunk pretty far into the back of his vest on the Arrow suit.

Oliver attempted to dislodge it by twisting and turning this way and that, had decided he had to ditch the outer vest but, with one arm out already, his head was beginning to feel far too light and he realized he was dangerously low on oxygen. So was Felicity, if she was even still alive. He tugged on his vest to get it off the other arm as he shifted Felicity to his free arm, but a deep pain shot through his back and he knew...so low on air, he wasn't going to have the strength to get himself free. It was too stuck.

He stopped, his heart breaking as he contented himself to simply hold the woman he loved, resting his forehead to hers he whispered a silent apology that he couldn't, that he had not been strong enough to get them both through this. So this was it, then. After everything that they had been through, this was it. An earthquake had done what supervillians had been unable, and wasn't that ironic? But then he figured...if this really had taken her life already, well he did not want to live in a world without his light, without his Felicity, so it was only fitting really.

His eyes closed.

Oliver felt himself drifting...

And then, all of a sudden, Felicity was pulled from his arms.

That shocked him into alertness once more, eyes wide now, but other than opening and closing his hand after her there was really nothing he could do. Then, hands were on him and there was a sudden, sharp, blinding pain in his back, and then he was moving. He did what he could to help the movement, and they were going the direction in which he knew Felicity had been taken, so he was okay with it.

When they broke surface near the shore, he realized it was Diggle whom he was leaning against as they stepped out from the depths of the river, breathing heavily and coughing a few times to get his air back.

"You owe me one," Diggle said, also out of breath as he clapped Oliver on the uninjured shoulder. Oliver shook his head and his gaze was immediately draw to the two women on the shore. Felicity was laid out at a safe distance and Thea was kneeling above her, doing chest compressions. Oliver's heart seized in his chest and he stumbled to his knees, pushing off Diggle and landing next to his sister, blue eyes intently focused on his Felicity.

"No." He whispered, reaching out and placing his large hand over her pulse point in such a way that his thumb rested just under her nose.

He felt absolutely nothing.

"NO!" He roared, his other hand coming to curl around her shoulder, because. Why was he allowed to live, to survive once again when she was not? How?

He took over the chest compressions and mouth to mouth, but it appeared to be having no effect. No, this was wrong, she was supposed to live..

It. Was. Not. Fair.

Time became meaningless as Oliver worked over her, not about to give up. There was no way, there just wasn't. He was not gonna lose her.

No. Just, no.

When Oliver felt a hand settle on his shoulder, the silent signal that it was time to let her go, he cried out in agony and squeezed his hands tight around both sides of Felicity's torso, lowering his head towards her stomach. The pain in his shoulder could not compare with the pain in his heart.

There was a jerking motion, and then suddenly Oliver was being sprayed all over his head and face with the water that was just as suddenly being expelled from a certain blonde's mouth. Oliver hissed in a gasp, eyes wide and red-rimmed as his head snapped up to see Felicity's face. Her eyes were open. And she was still gagging on water. Heart thudding in his chest with a sort of mystical disbelief, he rolled her quickly but carefully on her side, rubbing her back and supporting her as she expelled the rest of the liquid. Now that he could breathe again he sported a sort of absent minded but very emotional smile on his face as he laughed and shifted his weight to lean down to bury his face in her hair. He didn't care if he was crying, he hadn't lost her after all.

Felicity's left hand came up to rest on his arm that was wrapped around her shoulders, his elbow resting just above her collar bone, and he huffed out a giddy laugh at the contact. She was still coughing and his throat and back ached badly, but he was never moving. Never. He pressed a kiss into her hair and was thankful, truly thankful for the first time all day. She was alive. That was all that mattered.

"Oh, that hurt." Felicity rasped, trying to turn towards Oliver because, well she was actually lying on her right side, and that was not really helping the whole breathing and pain thing. Did she mention pain? Because she was in so much of it.

But Oliver was finally holding her in his arms...maybe she could withstand it, just a little while longer.

Suddenly though, she was flat on her back with Oliver hovering over her, his hands planted on the ground to either side of her shoulders and a concerned expression coloring his face.

Her being in pain? Well that mattered to him, too.

"What hurts?" Oliver asked, his eyes intensely boring into hers. When her first response was to simply blink at him as her mind tried to process the gruff words, his blue eyes wandered from her own to take in the rest of her face, his eyes scrunching up in a wince at something along her forehead, and then he began an intense scrutiny of the rest of her person. Finally, she was able to gasp out a response when she realized that he was cataloging all her visible injuries.

"Whole right..side. Arm, prob'ly broken." She spoke, and then coughed again. She moaned and closed her eyes, her head pounding so bad and just...there was pain, all over, and even breathing was beginning to really hurt.

"Felicity?" Oliver asked, tapping at her cheek with two fingers from his right hand. Even in her barely-there-mentally state, she picked up on the worry in his voice and immediately opened her eyes. He visibly relaxed, just a bit, when her eyes met his.

"No sleeping just now...Digg's gonna check you over, and then we're going to the hospital." Oliver said, his tone final. Since when had that stopped her? Since never, that's when.

"Not the hospital...it'll be crowded, with others needing care. Can't we go to the cave?" Felicity asked, her voice almost a whisper and it even hurt to speak. The look Oliver was giving her let her know her request was going to be ignored.

"You fell, in a car, from the bridge. We don't know what kind of internal damage could've been done. You need X-rays, Felicity." Oliver told her, his voice very calm and matter-of-fact. She scrunched her nose up at him which only caused him to smile, but then she was reaching for his hand as white-hot pain seared through her side. Oliver frowned and held tightly to her left hand as Diggle prodded around her side, already having discerned that other than some cuts and deep brusing, there wasn't all together much wrong with her legs, surprisingly. Starting with her ribcage and up, however, that was another matter.

"Sorry, Felicity, but this needs to be done." Diggle told her, smiling sadly down at the blonde. She gave a shaky nod and clung even more tightly to Oliver's hand, her nails digging into his glove. The pressure of Diggle's hands on her side was almost too much to bear.

"Hey," Oliver said softly, his intention only partly to distract her from the pain, and mostly just wanting to see her eyes on him again. He leaned down once more, gently tilting her head towards him with his free hand and leaving it there, a watery smile on his face. "You did it. You were awesome tonight, Felicity." He told her, and she let out a little huff and tried to smile.

"I kinda was...wasn't I?" Felicity whispered her response.

"You certainly were." Thea chimed in, keeling over Felicity's shoulder between her and Oliver. Felicity looked up at her and then winced when her head did not like that eye movement. "And lucky I brought a spare change of clothes for loverboy here, so that you two can actually go check into the hospital together." The young woman added, tossing a bundle Oliver had previously not noticed into his lap.

Oliver had forgotten that he was still wearing his mask and what remained of the Arrow costume. He'd have to check out the damage sustained to the vest later. He couldn't well go with her dressed like this, that would raise way too many questions and was just an all around bad idea. He was thankful to his sister for her thoughtfulness, and looked up and let her know so. She smiled and waved it off, retreating to go see who else she could help this morning. A lot of help was going to be needed, first to find survivors, and then the city-wide clean up.

He felt an increase of pressure on his hand and looked down again.

His friends could aide in the clean up. His place was right here, beside her. He couldn't hardly remove himself from her side long enough to change, honestly he didn't even want to. And then there remained the problem of actually getting to the hospital...

Digg finally sat back with a grim look on his face that immediately had Oliver's attention.

"What?"

"She definitely has at least one broken rib...probably several other fractured ones. Arm broken in at least two places and sprained wrist, that seems to be worst of it." Diggle said in a low voice.

"Still wanna take me to hospital?" Felicity inquired, hoping to get out of it. It didn't sound all that bad, right? The two men looked down at her and answered in unison,

"Yes."

She pouted but remained silent. Diggle ended up carrying her despite Oliver's grumpiness, because the man wasn't as invincible as he sometines seemed to think and that shoulder wound was actually pretty bad, but this would only work so long as Oliver walked right next to Digg with the fingers of Oliver's left hand entwined with Felicity's over her stomach, which put Oliver's arm resting sort of on her shoulder so her head was almost resting against his side. Diggle said nothing of this intimacy, knowing they both needed the touch. It had been hard enough when Oliver had to excuse himself for the seconds it took him to change, needing to do so out of public view for obvious reasons, and then meeting them a little further down the block. They had both been a nervous, almost paniced wreck until the other one came into their line of sight again. Diggle rolled his eyes a little at Oliver when he reappeared but again made no comment.

Somehow Thea had already foreseen the need for the back of Oliver's shirt to be ripped right where the injury was, how'd she'd maganed that so quickly and in just the right spot he'd never know. But he should really send her something as a thank you, because she had really thought of everything. Now they could say something had fallen and caught his back when he'd been at home.

The hospital was indeed quite full, but thankfully had sustained very minimal damage. As such, they only requested X-rays and bone settings for the blonde CEO and that she would get proper bed rest and care at home. Then Felicity and Diggle teamed up on Oliver and made him get the wound on his back cleaned and stitched up, provided the care was offered in the same room as Felicity. They had not stopped holding hands since they'd arrived, and since there were no beds available Felicity was actually sitting in Oliver's lap, positioned in such a way to take as much pressure as possible off her ribs and his back, so he was sitting sideways with his good shoulder leaning against the back of the chair and Felicity's legs extending out and resting upon the chair next to them. Oliver himself was alternately playing with her hair or lightly ghosting the tips of his fingers down her uninjured arm towards the wrist with his free hand. He finally contented himself with rubbing his thumb along the pulse point in her neck. She gave a contented sigh and rubbed her cheek against his chest.

The meeting she'd gone to attend would have to be post-poned for the foreseeable future, of that she was sure. But that did make her think of something...

"Oh, Oliver! My purse?" Felicity asked, not remembering having it when they left the shoreline. Had someone left it there? But what if someone snatched it? Oliver tilted his head back and gave her a raised eyebrow look.

"Yeah, we're going to have a serious talk about proper protocol in emergency situations when we get home. I saw you pop up with that purse. It could've cost you your life; you should've left it, Felicity." Oliver whispered the two sentences in her ear, the second one ending in a displeased growl from him. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

"With all the supervillians out there hounding you down, I think that was only proper protocol. You know when they realize the Green Arrow jumped off that bridge for someone, they're going to look into it?" She said, sounding offended. The pain meds were helping her block out the pain, but were also making her sleepy. Until a disagreement, apparently. Now she was wide awake. "Wait, are you telling me my purse is somewhere at the bottom of the river?" She said in a rush, pulse quickining. Oliver smiled and brought his lips down to brush her forehead to calm her down, whispering,

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there, if it ever even happens. Which I sincerely doubt. For now, don't worry about it and get some rest." He very much doubted anyone would do what she was afraid they would, but he wasn't going to argue with her right now. They both needed the rest. She stared at him for another minute, and then the meds began to pull at her again so she sighed and turned her head into his chest again.

As it turns out, that is exactly what the doctors prescribed - at least a week of complete bed rest for Felicity, and a few days of Oliver actually taking it easy so as not to pull on his stitches. Which really wasn't a worry, because with her on bed rest well, he was too. They spent most of those first few days sleeping, with Felicity on her back and Oliver on his side curled around her good side.

Right now he had his right arm under her neck with her smiling face turned to him, even in sleep. His left hand was still entwined with hers and he kept running his thumb over her knuckles. In particular, his attention was drawn to the new and hopefully permanent addition, a small band on her ring finger that glistened in the low light, a diamond in the center accented on either side by smaller stones of jade.

He had promised to keep on showing her how much he loved her, and this was a start. He'd finally asked her to be his wife. The thought of being able to call himself her husband filled his heart with joy and warmth, and put a big goofy smile on his lips.

-  
Sent from Fast notepad


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